Heading Home is always working to engage youth with the organization’s work and mission. This past month, Heading Home collaborated with a student program called Community Builders hosted by Albuquerque Academy. Development Manager Shahnit Shahzad and Heading Home CEO Dennis Plummer both presented to the group. Dennis spoke about Heading Home’s work and about homelessness and poverty, Shahnit spoke with the group about gratitude.
Heading Home also put in a request for funds to the group, which gives out $10,000 in grants each summer to organizations that the students have interacted with. In addition, the student group went to Heading Home’s Albuquerque Opportunity Center (AOC) for a meeting with Respite Program Director David Sisneros. They spoke with David about the programs the campus offers and took a tour of the facility.
Part of Heading Home’s mission is “to be an innovative convener, collaborator and educator about homelessness in our community.” Interactions like these with engaged young people go a long way towards changing attitudes and contextualizing the struggles of those experiencing homelessness in our community.